Auction Called Off For SD Land

The planned auction of nearly 2,000 acres of land in South Dakota's Black Hills that is considered sacred by American Indian tribes has been cancelled.

Brock Auction Company planned to auction five tracts of land owned by Leonard and Margaret Reynolds on Saturday. But a message on the auction house's website says it has been cancelled at the owners' direction.

The auction house said they had no comment, as did Margaret Reynolds.

Tribes of the Great Sioux Nation consider the site key to their creation story, and members feared new owners would develop the land they call Pe' Sla.

Rosebud Sioux Tribe spokesman Alfred Walking Bull says he didn't know the auction was cancelled. The tribes have raised more than $1 million to try to buy the land.